Love Comes Crashing
by beatlechicksteph
Summary: Steve Rogers didn't think he would ever date again after being separated from Peggy. That is, until he literally crashes into it.


**Written for Marvelous Magical's Bingo 2018, for my square: Steve Rogers/Hermione Granger**

Steve looked at the lake as he ran around it. Since the incident in New York, he had been living in DC, working closely with SHIELD. He and Natasha were either constantly out on missions for them, or he was here, trying to make sense of the world around him. If he was being honest, he preferred the times he was out on missions, gave him less time to think.

Everything was just very overwhelming. The new time, the new technology, the fact that everyone he knew was either dead or heading that way. Natasha had tried to teach him how to use the Internet, but that just made everything worse. It should be illegal to have so much information at your fingertips so quickly and unfiltered. And on top of that, it just highlighted that there was so much he missed how different everything really was.

His mind had wandered so much that he wasn't really paying attention, he was just running at his full speed, lap after lap around the lake. And that's why he didn't notice the woman who was jogging in front of him until it was too late, and he was crashing into her, bringing them both to the ground. At the last minute, Steve's super human instincts kicked in, and he was able to grab the woman around the waist, and turned them so that he was the one who landed hard on the concrete instead of her. He was pretty sure if he landed on her, he would have killed, or seriously injured the poor girl, she was so petite.

"Oh, god," Steve said, as they laid on the ground, panting, trying to catch their breaths. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

The woman nodded as they untangled themselves from each other. "Yes, I'm fine, I think you took the brunt of my fall. Great instincts by the way."

Steve froze at the sound of her British accent. He looked up at her, and really took her in for the first time. Dark hair pulled in to a pony tail in the back, dark eyes, and though she was petite, she posed a strong form in her work out attire. Steve couldn't help but compare her to another British woman he had known, to him, not too long ago, and he could feel his heart stop.

"Are you okay?" she asked him. "You took quite the fall, and you were running really fast."

Steve shook his head, clearing the cobwebs. "Yeah, I'm fine. I can take a beating. Are you sure you're okay, ma'am? Like you said, I was running very fast."

"Hermione," she said.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Hermione. Not ma'am. It makes me feel old," she said with a laugh.

Steve laughed right along with her. "Steve," he said extending his hand to her.

Hermione took his hand, shaking it. "It's nice to meet you, Steve."

"Do you want to go get a coffee or something? It's the least I can do to make up for plowing over you just now," Steve said, not even sure where that was coming from. Did he just ask her out?

"I would love that," Hermione answered.

They stood up, and Steve led the way to the nearest coffee shop, the whole way wondering why crashing into this girl had done in two seconds what Natasha had been trying months to do. Get him to out with a girl.

~S~

Steve laughed as Hermione recounted a story of her cat protesting to their move overseas. She had just relocated from London for a long term job opportunity here, and her cat had taken purchase with being cooped up in a carrier for as long as he been forced to.

"What do you do for work, Steve?" she asked.

He stared across the table at her. "You really don't know who I am?" he asked. "I just thought you were being polite, but you really don't know?"

Hermione shook her head. "Should I know?"

"I've been all over the television the last few months."

"I don't have a telly," Hermione said with a shrug.

"Really? I'm also all over the Internet."

"Don't have the Internet."

Steven looked at her like she had suddenly just grown two heads. "You don't have a TV or the Internet? I've been told those are two things people in this era can't live without. That and their cell phone."

"I don't have one of those either," Hermione said with a shrug and a smile. "Just call me old fashioned."

"If you don't have a cell phone, how do you keep in touch with the people you work for? My boss is always texting me and calling me."

"We have…other means of communication," Hermione said, averting her eyes.

Steve looked at her quizzically. She was hiding something, he could tell, but what it was, he wasn't sure. It could be nothing. It could be something. He was hoping it was nothing.

"So, you were going to tell me who you are, since apparently I've been living under a rock."

"I'm Captain America," he said.

Hermione gasped. "You're Captain America?"

"So you have heard of me."

"Yes, but only in passing. I'd never seen a photo of you, so I apologize for not knowing who you were right away. How are you adjusting? I can't imagine going through what you did, I'm guessing everything is topsy turvy for you."

Steve smiled at her concern. "I'm doing better day by day. There's just so much I missed in the 70 years I was frozen. I just feel very overwhelmed sometimes."

"I can imagine," Hermione said. "I know I don't have a telly, or a mobile or the Internet, but I read, a lot. I can try to help you out? If you want?"

"An excuse to spend time with a pretty girl like you? I'd be an idiot to turn that down."

They both blushed and looked down at their coffee, and Steve was beginning to feel not so out of place for the first time since he woke up in this new reality.

~S~

Over the next few weeks, Steve and Hermione would meet up after they got off work and talk about everything that had gone on over the last seventy years. First they were meeting once a week at the coffee shop, and then every other day, until finally they began meeting every night, alternating between their apartments.

He was growing very fond of her, and he was hoping she was feeling the same way. Being with her was easier than being with the other Avengers or SHIELD agents. She didn't look at him like he was a puppy or a child who needed help. She looked at him as an equal. Rather than sitting and lecturing him or teaching him about what he had missed, or making fun of him if he didn't know a particular reference, their time together involved discussions, and appreciation for the past. While he enjoyed learning about what he had missed, Hermione was equally interested in his life before he was frozen. And he enjoyed telling her about it.

When he finally gathered up the courage to kiss her, she kissed him back, and his heart soared.

After a week of kissing, he was pleasantly surprised when she moved things a long farther. As they moved together in the moonlight that shown through his apartment window, he knew he was in love. And for the first time he was happy he had crashed that plane into the ice and was brought back to now. Because if it hadn't happened, he would never have met Hermione.

~S~

Steve wrapped himself around Hermione's body, tighter. She was staying the night, since neither of them had to work in the morning. It was a rare moment he got to sleep with her in his arms. He didn't know what woke him, but it was still the middle of the night from the looks of it, and he was going to take advantage of being able to sleep in in the morning. Just as he was fading back to sleep, he felt Hermione tense.

"Steve," she whispered, "there's a man with an eye patch in your room."

Steve opened his eyes and startled when he saw Director Fury standing by his doorway. He quickly grabbed the bedding and pulled it up and around Hermione, making sure her modesty was protected. They weren't completely naked, but she was in her night clothes, and that was not something he wanted his boss to see.

"Director Fury," he said. "What are you doing here?"

Director Fury held a finger up to his mouth, indicating for him to remain quiet. He walked over to the record player he had in his room, turning it on. Loud music blasted through the room. Steve sat up and moved to the end of the bed, standing up to walk over to Fury.

"SHIELD has been compromised," Fury whispered to him. "Trust no one."

Before Steve could question him, the glass shattered and Fury fell to the ground. Shot. Steve whipped around as more bullets riddled the apartment.

"Accio wand!" Hermione shouted from behind him. "Accio shield," she shouted again, and before he could think his shield had come flying toward him, and he grabbed it out of the air, whipping it around toward the window. "Protego!" Hermione shouted one more time before joining him behind the shield. He wrapped an arm around her body, pulling her in as close as possible, making sure she was completely behind the shield.

As soon as the gun fire stopped, he looked over the shield and saw him. The man shooting at them. The man responsible for shooting Director Fury. He felt Hermione leave his arms, but he never took his eyes off the figure in the distance.

"Steve, your boss has been shot!" Hermione shouted from behind him.

Before he could answer, his door flew open and the nurse from next door was there, kneeling over Fury.

"I'll be back," Steve shouted to the women, before taking a flying leap out of his window and chasing down his assailant.

~S~

Steve opened the door to his apartment feeling defeated. The man had gotten away. He walked into his room, and Hermione was there. Alone. She was sitting on the floor, her back against the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest. She looked up at him as he came into the room. She had been crying.

Steve walked over to her, sitting down on the floor next to her, setting his shield aside. "I'm sorry this happened while you were here."

"I'm a witch," Hermione muttered.

"What?" Steve asked.

She turned toward him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "I've been dishonest with you the whole time we've been together. I'm a witch, and the only reason I didn't tell you is they have strict rules about magic and non-magical people, and then tonight when we were under siege I must have forgot that you're a super soldier and I used magic in front of you, and now you must hate me."

Steve stared at her. "I don't hate you. Whatever you did, those words you said that made my shield come to me before I could even think about getting it, they saved our lives tonight. I could never hate you, I love you."

Hermione started crying. "I love you, too."

Steve smiled. "You don't know how good it is to hear that. I was so worried you didn't feel the same."

"I've felt this way for a long time."

Steve leaned in to kiss her, long and hard. When they pulled apart, he pressed his forehead against hers.

"Your boss had this in his hand, it's for you," Hermione said quietly, slipping a flash drive into his hand. "He pressed it into my hand and told me to give it to you before the nurse came in and they rushed him to the hospital."

Steve sighed, his fist clenching around the drive. "Something big is going down, and I need to figure out what it is. I'm probably going to be MIA for the next few days, but when the dust settles, I'll be back for you, I promise. And you can tell me more about what exactly it means when you say you're a witch."

Hermione nodded, pressing a kiss to his lips one more time. They stood up from the floor, dressed and began to leave the apartment, Steve heading toward the hospital and Hermione heading toward home.

As they turned their separate ways, Steve couldn't help but smile and think that after he caught the bastard who shot Fury and figured out what he meant about SHIELD being compromised, he would have something good to look forward to.

He couldn't wait to introduce Hermione to the rest of the Avengers. Well, maybe not Stark…


End file.
